All I could think of watching this episode was how insufferably smug all the goodies are. The Doctor, Ruby, Rose, Morris, Kate, Harriet, all the UNIT hangers on, Uncle Ted Willis and all... They're supposed to be the heroes but there isn't an iota of genuine likeability about any of them. They are so infuriatingly pleased with themselves! And at least one of them can't act for toffee. Mel and Susan Triad are the only people I actually cared about by the end because they're the only genuine characters with good actors.
The best thing I did as an old school Doctor Who fan was walk away in 2017. Didn't bother coming back for the Tennant specials, and certainly wouldn't watch this stuff. I still enjoy real Doctor Who 63-89 and Smith & Capaldi's era, but once they decided that the show was just a vehicle to promote social justice, they lost me forever.
This, whatever this is, is not Doctor Who. Enough is enough. It's an insult to Newman, Lambert and everyone that made Doctor Who the institution it is. Even Chibnall was better and that's saying something.
I hated this series. However my biggest bugbear with it, isn't the forced agenda, it isn't the weak plots and poor writing, it's the main man himself Ncuti Gatwa. When he was first cast we kept being told by all and sundry what a magnificent actor he was. I've now watched him in 9 episodes, and I can honestly say, he's the worst actor to have played the Doctor in 61 years. Every time he opens his mouth I cringe. he isn't acting, he's just playing himself. His delivery of the line about being the last of the time lords (yawn RTD) was pathetic. Like something out of a school play. Hopefully Disney won't renew for a series 3, and we only have to suffer through 9 more episodes of this banal badly written badly acted rubbish.
Well, I would have agreed that it was back on track, but I just saw "Empire of Death" and cue the screeching needle across the record player. It's back off track. Trust me.
Sorry lads, I respect that you want to watch ALL Doctor Who, but I just can't. You're on your own when it comes to this "era". You can call it Doctor Who, you can have the TARDIS and all the trappings but it just isn't Doctor Who anymore. It's just an aging gay man's vanity project.
As a regular contributor to your channel - I've been waiting for you to post this reaction, so that I can share my thoughts. I found this a real chore to watch, but couldn't work out why. So after a few hours thought, it hit me as to what I've found off about this season so far. It's taken until this episode to realise that I feel like I'm watching a first draft of an episode - it's as though RTD has such confidence in his ability as a writer that it fails to get a redraft. The pacing is terrible. Would you really just park the whole Susan Triad thing (someone giving technology to the world for free, that you think is based on TARDIS tech - nothing suspicious there!) and wallow in Christmas memories of someone you only met a few months ago? Let me think? Free worldwide technology or who's the mummy? Which would be the biggest concern to you? Had the episode started with Ruby at home looking for the VHS to show the Doctor, we could have then dispensed with all the pointless characters (Cherry and Mrs Flood deserved better). Why did the radio on Cherry's bedside table show the time as 15.08, and in the next scene UNIT still gabbing about Susan Triad's broadcast at 3pm? Time Window? UNIT barely has the brain capacity to switch on a light bulb, so which scientific genius is supposed to have built this creation? Osgood Senior (The Daemons), Malcolm, Petronella Osgood, Shirley? Oh, and what is the stance on employing kids in 2024? Sutekh's return wasn't that shocking considering RTD ripped off that classic scene from Pyramids of Mars in The Devil's Chord. By why change the way his looked? Surely such an iconic classic enemy defies CGI? When Harriet is listing the various gods, I half expected to hear her utter the words: "There is RTD the God of Storytelling, where none can resists his words" For me, this episode was a HUGE disappointment. I've no faith that RTD can pull a satisfactory resolution out of this pile of Space Babies Filled Nappies.
The fact you guys are still watching this garbage is amazing. I've been a fan for almost 50 years, I even struggled through most of the Whittaker era, but I gave up four episodes ago on this. It's just not Doctor Who anymore, on any level. It's just a camp Disney mockery.
This episode was 9 out of 10. Very entertaining and the tension built steadily into an excellent last few minutes. Great to see Bonnie been given such good material to work with. Grateful to be still be enjoying this show since 1967.
Welcome Joe! Having now watched Empire of Death, I can say definitively that this was the best episode of the season, and no coincidence that it also felt like the most traditional (though it was noticeable that the UNIT team did not contain a single able bodied white male). This was the first time all season I really believed in the Doctor-Ruby relationship, the time window stuff was very well handled and Mel feels a much more rounded character than she was in the 80s. I also enjoyed the Doctor’s chat with Kate about Susan - I am convinced we are going to see her at some point, as she has been mentioned so many times recently that it would be a crushing disappointment if she didn’t appear. However, looks like we will be waiting another year at least… Susan Triad turning out to be the monkey, rather than the organ grinder, was a clever twist, and the cliffhanger was really good, perhaps the best RTD has come up with since the reveal of the Master in Utopia. CGI Sutekh looked quite impressive, and it’s lovely that Gabriel Woolf was able to come back to provide that marvellous voice again. Just a shame Empire of Death didn’t quite live up to this, but more on that next time…
All I could think of watching this episode was how insufferably smug all the goodies are. The Doctor, Ruby, Rose, Morris, Kate, Harriet, all the UNIT hangers on, Uncle Ted Willis and all... They're supposed to be the heroes but there isn't an iota of genuine likeability about any of them. They are so infuriatingly pleased with themselves! And at least one of them can't act for toffee. Mel and Susan Triad are the only people I actually cared about by the end because they're the only genuine characters with good actors.
The best thing I did as an old school Doctor Who fan was walk away in 2017.
Didn't bother coming back for the Tennant specials, and certainly wouldn't watch this stuff.
I still enjoy real Doctor Who 63-89 and Smith & Capaldi's era, but once they decided that the show was just a vehicle to promote social justice, they lost me forever.
This, whatever this is, is not Doctor Who.
Enough is enough. It's an insult to Newman, Lambert and everyone that made Doctor Who the institution it is. Even Chibnall was better and that's saying something.
I hated this series.
However my biggest bugbear with it, isn't the forced agenda,
it isn't the weak plots and poor writing, it's the main man himself Ncuti Gatwa.
When he was first cast we kept being told by all and sundry what a magnificent actor he was.
I've now watched him in 9 episodes, and I can honestly say, he's the worst actor to have played the Doctor in 61 years. Every time he opens his mouth I cringe. he isn't acting, he's just playing himself.
His delivery of the line about being the last of the time lords (yawn RTD) was pathetic. Like something
out of a school play.
Hopefully Disney won't renew for a series 3, and we only have to suffer through 9 more episodes of this banal badly written badly acted rubbish.
Well, I would have agreed that it was back on track, but I just saw "Empire of Death" and cue the screeching needle across the record player. It's back off track. Trust me.
Sorry lads, I respect that you want to watch ALL Doctor Who, but I just can't. You're on your own when it comes to this "era".
You can call it Doctor Who, you can have the TARDIS and all the trappings but it just isn't Doctor Who anymore.
It's just an aging gay man's vanity project.
As a regular contributor to your channel - I've been waiting for you to post this reaction, so that I can share my thoughts.
I found this a real chore to watch, but couldn't work out why.
So after a few hours thought, it hit me as to what I've found off about this season so far. It's taken until this episode to realise that I feel like I'm watching a first draft of an episode - it's as though RTD has such confidence in his ability as a writer that it fails to get a redraft.
The pacing is terrible. Would you really just park the whole Susan Triad thing (someone giving technology to the world for free, that you think is based on TARDIS tech - nothing suspicious there!) and wallow in Christmas memories of someone you only met a few months ago? Let me think? Free worldwide technology or who's the mummy? Which would be the biggest concern to you?
Had the episode started with Ruby at home looking for the VHS to show the Doctor, we could have then dispensed with all the pointless characters (Cherry and Mrs Flood deserved better). Why did the radio on Cherry's bedside table show the time as 15.08, and in the next scene UNIT still gabbing about Susan Triad's broadcast at 3pm?
Time Window? UNIT barely has the brain capacity to switch on a light bulb, so which scientific genius is supposed to have built this creation? Osgood Senior (The Daemons), Malcolm, Petronella Osgood, Shirley?
Oh, and what is the stance on employing kids in 2024?
Sutekh's return wasn't that shocking considering RTD ripped off that classic scene from Pyramids of Mars in The Devil's Chord. By why change the way his looked? Surely such an iconic classic enemy defies CGI?
When Harriet is listing the various gods, I half expected to hear her utter the words:
"There is RTD the God of Storytelling, where none can resists his words"
For me, this episode was a HUGE disappointment. I've no faith that RTD can pull a satisfactory resolution out of this pile of Space Babies Filled Nappies.
The fact you guys are still watching this garbage is amazing.
I've been a fan for almost 50 years, I even struggled through most of the Whittaker era, but I gave up four episodes ago on this. It's just not Doctor Who anymore, on any level.
It's just a camp Disney mockery.
This isn't Doctor Who.
It isn't anything of any value.
It's unwatchable generic wallpaper masquerading as Doctor Who.
This episode was 9 out of 10. Very entertaining and the tension built steadily into an excellent last few minutes.
Great to see Bonnie been given such good material to work with.
Grateful to be still be enjoying this show since 1967.
Doctor Who is unrecognizable trash now.
Welcome Joe! Having now watched Empire of Death, I can say definitively that this was the best episode of the season, and no coincidence that it also felt like the most traditional (though it was noticeable that the UNIT team did not contain a single able bodied white male). This was the first time all season I really believed in the Doctor-Ruby relationship, the time window stuff was very well handled and Mel feels a much more rounded character than she was in the 80s. I also enjoyed the Doctor’s chat with Kate about Susan - I am convinced we are going to see her at some point, as she has been mentioned so many times recently that it would be a crushing disappointment if she didn’t appear. However, looks like we will be waiting another year at least…
Susan Triad turning out to be the monkey, rather than the organ grinder, was a clever twist, and the cliffhanger was really good, perhaps the best RTD has come up with since the reveal of the Master in Utopia. CGI Sutekh looked quite impressive, and it’s lovely that Gabriel Woolf was able to come back to provide that marvellous voice again. Just a shame Empire of Death didn’t quite live up to this, but more on that next time…